Guwahati, Nov. 10: Nearly 280 families were homeless after a fire reduced 500-odd huts and shops in the Assam capital to ashes.

Flames engulfed Gopinath Nagar around 7 am, apparently originating from the residence of a man named Jaylal Mandal. Given the scale of the blaze, it was almost a miracle that nobody died. Those who were caught in the fire escaped with minor burns, but property worth several lakhs of rupees was lost.

A few heads of cattle were killed in the incident, the police said.

The fire spread rapidly through the huts, which had been built over raised platforms on swampland owned by the Industrial Training Institute (ITI). P.K. Talukdar, the principal of the institute, said the houses had been built illegally.

A preliminary investigation suggested an LPG cylinder burst caused the inferno. Fire-tenders could not reach the site quickly because the road is a narrow one. One of the vehicles fell into a pond within the ITI campus while trying to avoid people running for safety. Over 15 fire tenders had been pressed into service.

Talukdar said the district administration had evicted residents of the colony, but they returned soon. Kamrup (metropolitan) deputy commissioner A.K. Absar Hazarika said an inquiry would be instituted to ascertain the cause of the fire.

The police are making temporary arrangements at the ITI building to accommodate some of those who lost their homes.

Kanika Sarkar, a neighbour of Jaylal, said many residents were probably asleep when the fire broke out. ?So quickly did the fire spread that nobody even tried to save their belongings. Saving our lives was more important.?

Another resident, Manira Begum, said: ?My house was reduced to ashes within minutes. I could not save anything.?

The fire was the second major one in the city in less than a month. Eight houses and property worth several lakhs of rupees were gutted in a blaze in a colony near the Adabari bus terminus on October 18.